Political History Commons^™

The World After: Central Virginia In The Wake Of The Civil War, Harry Caldwell

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the situation in Central Virginia following the surrender of Appomattox. Its primary focus is on the Federal Provost Guard who were sent back into the region in the month following the Surrender. It begins in March 1865, introducing the world that the Provost will be thrown into that summer, and it will go month to month until January 1866, when the Provost have fully departed from the region and power was fully turned over to civilian authorities. This research is primarily built of the General Orders that were printed in the Lynchburg newspaper, The Daily Virginian, …

Little Men And Big Banks: The Republican Party's Financial Policy From The Civil War To The Panic Of 1873, Miles Sebastian Hansen

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

False Idol: The Memory Of Andrew Johnson And Reconstruction In Greeneville, Tennessee 1869-2022, Zachary A. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The memory of Andrew Johnson in Greeneville has progressed through three phases. The first phase began during Johnson’s post-presidential career when he sought national office to demonstrate his vindication. After Johnson died the first phase continued through the efforts of his daughters and local Unionists who sought to strengthen the myth of monolithic Unionism and use Johnson to promote reconciliation and to shield the region from federal intervention in the racial hierarchy. The second phase in the construction of Johnson’s memory began in 1908 when Northerners began to unite with white Southerners in white supremacy. East Tennesseans then celebrated the …

"Freedmen Not Freemen": The Freedmen's Bureau And Black Land Ownership In Arkansas, Eric Johnson

Honors Theses

When slavery ended at the close of the Civil War, there was no universal answer for where former slaves were to live. The type and quality of freedom Black Southerners would experience during Reconstruction would be largely determined by where they lived. Many freedpeople and Republicans desired for widespread Black land ownership across the South. “Forty acres and a mule” was a common phrase that spread throughout the South and represented the hope that the United States government would ensure that all former slaves would be given land to own and live on. The Freedmen’s Bureau, which was created under …

The Impact Of American Economic Aid On Post-World War Ii Germany, Gabriella Barber, Emily T. Carlstrom

Senior Theses

This paper examines the state of Germany immediately after World War II, describing how the American government intervened in West German reconstruction. It analyzes three specific German companies that overcame hardship in the 1940s and 50s and have become powerhouses today. Additionally, an overview of the current German economy shows how the country is positioned as a world leader.

Research was conducted using literary print sources, scholarly internet databases, and a formal interview with Klaus Becker, Honorary Consul to Germany. He is a German-American businessman who has held roles in several non-political associations, including President of the Charlotte World Trade …

The Hydraulic Dimension Of Reconstruction In Louisiana, 1863-1879, Matthew P. Carlin

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Louisiana developed an extensive system of levees throughout the Atchafalaya Basin and along its territorial Mississippi River. This system reached its zenith on the eve of the American Civil War. It went into dramatic decline following the conflict due to the confluence of military activity, protracted irregular warfare, and neglect stemming from labor and capital revolution. These shifts intensified with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and finally consolidated after the ratification of Louisiana’s Constitution of 1879. The shift of responsibility for the construction and maintenance of levees during the Reconstruction Era led to many significant changes in the character and function …

Architect Of The New South: The Life And Legacy Of William Mahone, Heath M. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

In Virginia following the Civil War, white and black people formed complex and shifting alliances based on their own self-interests that cut across the lines of established political parties. In this turbulent atmosphere, William Mahone forged a new biracial political coalition called the Readjuster Party in order to transform Virginia’s economy so that it would be competitive in the years to come. Chapter One argues that Mahone’s experience as a soldier and railroad man gave him the political clout needed to enter politics and an industrial vision for Virginia’s future that was markedly different from many of his contemporaries. Chapter …

Reconstruction: A Concise History, Allen C. Guelzo

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

The era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest times in American history. It succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War but in little else. Conflict shifted from the battlefield to the Capitol as Congress warred with President Andrew Johnson over just what to do with the South. Johnson's plan of Presidential Reconstruction, which was sympathetic to the former Confederacy and allowed repressive measures such as the "black codes," would ultimately lead to his impeachment and the institution of Radical Reconstruction. While Reconstruction saw the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments, expanding the rights and …

Arkansas's Divided Democracy: The Making Of The Constitution Of 1874, Rodney Waymon Harris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the making of Arkansas’s constitution of 1874, which drew the curtain on Reconstruction in the state and remains in force in the twenty-first century. It contributes to the scholarship of Arkansas history, Southern history, and U.S. political and constitutional history by showing that Arkansas’s Redeemers were not unified or homogeneous, but rather a fractured group who fought about how restrictive the state’s new constitution would be. In the end, it was more generous in some sections than some Democrats wished. This dissertation, thus, challenges a traditional narrative of a likeminded convention and relentlessly restrictive constitution-making. However, it …

Jones, Thomas Laurens, 1819-1887 (Sc 3080), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 3080. Papers of Thomas L. Jones of Campbell County, Kentucky, a state representative and member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Letters to him praise two of his speeches concerning the U.S. Centennial and the 1876 amnesty bill restoring citizenship to ex-Confederates. Fellow Democratic Party members write with invitations to various functions, to encourage him in seeking the gubernatorial nomination, and to discuss political matters. Friend Thomas B. Chaplin relates his fortunes in South Carolina during and after the Civil War (Click on "Additional Files" below). Includes a few letters and telegrams to wife …

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2017

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

November Turmoil, John M. Rudy

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

November meant turmoil. It meant upheaval. It meant confusion. Americans had tried to speak in a clear voice, but they were about split down the center. So divided was the nation, there was no clear winner. The Democrats seized the population vote; the Electoral College fell firmly on the Republican side. The very future of the republican democracy hung in the balance. [excerpt]

Trailblazer: The Legacy Of Bishop Henry M. Turner During The Civil War, Reconstruction, And Jim Crowism, Jordan Alexander

Masters Theses

Henry McNeal Turner (1834–1915), a black wartime chaplain, an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) pastor, and occasional Republican politician, was a beacon of hope for thousands of freedmen following the American Civil War. The late nineteenth century marked a watershed in civil rights in the United States. The Civil War (1861–1865) ushered in emancipation for black slaves, while Reconstruction (1865–1877) provided tremendous opportunities for freedmen, including black male suffrage, equal protection under the law, and election to public office. Of course, African–Americans faced serious challenges. Many white southerners resisted Reconstruction, and the Ku Klux Klan (and other hate groups) soon emerged …

Commentary: 14th Amendment Laid Foundation Of Civil Liberties, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

They had just glued the world back together, and within a year it was threatening to come apart again.

That might sound like a description of the Arab Spring, or even the fall of the Soviet Union. In fact, it's what happened 150 years ago in the United States. [excerpt]

Cotton, Clemency, And Control: United States V. Klein And The Juridical Legacy Of Executive Pardon, Heather L. Clancy

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

When the guns of war fell silent in 1865, Americans throughout the reunited states grappled with the logistics of peace. At virtually every turn lay nebulous but critical questions of race, class, allegiance, and identity. More pragmatic legal stumbling blocks could also be found strewn across the path to Reconstruction; some of them would ensnare the healing nation for decades to come. Among their number was notorious Supreme Court decision United States v. Klein (1872). Born on July 22, 1865 out of a small debate over the wartime seizure of Vicksburg cotton stores, Klein quickly evolved into a legal …

What If Abraham Lincoln Had Lived?, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The lead .41-calibre bullet with which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, was the most lethal gunshot in American history. Only five days earlier, the main field army of the Southern Confederacy had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and the four dreary years of civil war were yielding to a spring of national rebirth. But by then, the man to whom everyone looked for guidance in reconstructing the nation was dead. [excerpt]

Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka

Student Publications

With the end of the Civil War, came a number of unanswered questions Reconstruction would attempt to answer for the South. While the South underwent economic, political and social changes for a short period, old traditions continued to persist resulting in racist sentiment.

Lincoln’S Vision Of Free Labor: Was Universal Opportunity, Education, And Economic Nationalism Enough To Enhance Freedmens’ Rights After The Civil War And Reconstruction?, Harry M. Hipler

Harry M Hipler

This paper will explore free labor, education, and universal opportunity – the latter being synonymous with equal opportunity – as described by Abraham Lincoln, and its connectivity to economic development and nationalism before, during, and after the Civil War era. First, I discuss Lincoln’s vision of free labor that defined his vision in 19th century America. Next, I explore the importance of universal opportunity and education as they relate to free labor as defined by white Republicans and Lincoln. The Republican Party and Lincoln strongly believed that free labor was the harbinger of success to obtain universal opportunity for all …

Bacteria And Politics: The Application Of Science To The Yellow Fever Crisis In Reconstruction New Orleans, Polly M. Rolman-Smith

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of germ theory during the nineteenth century transformed Western medicine. By the 1870s, public health officials in the American South used germ theory to promote sanitation efforts to control public health crises, such as yellow fever epidemics. Before the discovery of mosquito transmission of yellow fever, physicians of the late nineteenth century believed the disease was spread by a highly contagious germ. Prominent medical practitioners of New Orleans, such as Confederate Army veteran Dr. Joseph Jones, used available scientific knowledge and investigation to attempt to control yellow fever during the Reconstruction period, a period rife with political and …

Slaughter Family Papers (Sc 402), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 402. Will, 1798; slavery bill of sale, 1810; militia commission, 1820; letters concerning Slaughter estate settlement, 1835-1843 (9); Mexican War claim, 1849; letters of recommendations for judicial appointments, 1853-1879 (7); Civil War notes and letters, 1861-1864 (4); and miscellaneous items. Selected items have been typescripted.

"The Most Awful Problem That Any Nation Ever Undertook To Solve": Reconstruction As A Crisis In Citizenship, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Reconstruction is the step-child of the Civil War, the black hole of American history. It lacks the conflict and the personalities that make the Civil War so colorful; it also lacks the climactic feuds and battles, and dissipates into a confusing and wearisome tale of lost opportunities, squalid victories, and embarrassing defeats whose ultimate endpoint is the great American disgrace - Jim Crow. It lives with the short end of the historical stick for accomplishing too much, then accomplishing too little, with the result that almost the worst thing that can be said about someone in American history is that …

The American Civil War, Emancipation, And Reconstruction On The World Stage, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Americans demanded the world's attention during their Civil War and Reconstruction. Newspapers around the globe reported the latest news from the United States as one vast battle followed another, as the largest system of slavery in the world crashed into pieces, as American democracy expanded to include people who had been enslaved only a few years before.

Northerners In The Reconstruction Of Hampton, Virginia, 1865-1870, Gladys A. Blair

History Theses & Dissertations

The 1870 census for Hampton, Virginia indicated that out of the 8,303 total population, 176 were foreign born and 672 came from states other than Virginia. A logical explanation for the presence of the large number of northerners is that they were carpetbaggers who had come South after the war to take advantage of the prostrate southerners. This paper analyzes the Yankee population in Hampton, Virginia in the period following the Civil War. It discusses the origins of the northerners, their reasons for coming to Hampton, their occupations, the Hampton political situation, and the impact the northerners made on the …

0065: Dr. Richard Curry Papers, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of research materials and the personal and professional papers of historian Richard Orr Curry. The collection spans the years 1952-1983, with the bulk of material from the 1970s and early 1980s. The research material in Series 1 on West Virginia statehood, the Civil War, and Reconstruction are all copies, transcripts, and photoduplicates. The only original letters and papers are contained in Box 1, Folder 3, as described below in the finding aid. Much of the Series 2 material focuses on Curry’s anger at his treatment by the USIA, and it contains many letters and copies of published …

Signed Photograph Of Robert E. Lee And George Peabody (And Others) At White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, August 1869., Unknown

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

This photograph, taken 1869 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, is the last photograph of Robert E. Lee before his death in 1870. Seen by some as a symbol of early reconciliation between North and South, the image features Lee (seated, 2nd from left) alongside George Peabody (seated, 3rd from left). Peabody was a British-American industrialist and philanthropist who supported the Union during the war, but was fêted by fellow guests at the Springs in 1869 for his postwar generosity and investment in the Southern education system. Both he and Lee shared the belief that education was the best means …